DOC/UNDOC

Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática

Excerpt from "DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented: Transgress, Transcend, Transform", Jennifer A. González, Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vazquez, Zachary James Watkins, 2014, From the collection of: Museo Eduardo Carrillo
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DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Case interior: Case interior (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

What Is It?
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DOC/UNDOC presents itself as a seven-year effort in which, as Rice notes, “an unlikely group of collaborators re/imagine the future of bookmaking.

Unlike most works of art that cannot be touched, this one yearns to be caressed, pressed, unpacked, and disassembled for the sake of initiating personal and cultural transgressions and transcendence.

Aural and video elements are equally important in the gesamtkunstwerk effect of DOC/UNDOC. A complex soundscape is triggered when the aluminum lid lifts.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Case Contents (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Proceed
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An elaborate audio-visual treasure box houses a “shamanic” performance kit complete with sound effects, kitschy-campy objets d’art, a vanity mirror, and a fake fur frame.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Book inside front cover (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Book contents (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: book interior (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

If the talismans that surround the book are not merely toys, but rather tools for transcendence, then the printed book, by master printmaker Felicia Rice, can be seen as the scripture.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: accordion book (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Shamanic Accordion
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In the book Rice offers a layered visual track under and alongside Gómez-Peña's words, leveraging his psycho-personal-political-poetic voice into a series of high pitch, often-nightmarish images.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Case interior with book opened (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Case interior Wanted for identity theft & cultural impersonation (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Demented clowns, tigers, cartoon figures, skeletons, and the Santa Sangre populate this world, and inflect Gómez-Peña's voice on the page

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Explaining to a nurse what I do (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Each page of the book is a visual interpretation of the writings of Gomez-Peña using hand-drawn images of found objects, some taken directly from the personal collection of the performance artist.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Dwelling in unnecessary wounds (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

The ragged intensity of Rice’s imagery and the short bursts of Gómez-Peña’s performance texts offers a visual-verbal experience

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: The left and the right (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Dealing with fears through performance (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

In a quietly radical gesture for the world of book arts and printmaking, the floating images break the rules of marginal precision and free the pages from traditional frames.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performáticaa: Tired of walking north (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Border interrogation (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: We are here because you were there (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Flagrant stupid acts of transgression (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: We are here because you were there (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Freefalling toward a borderless future (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Love conversation with my computer (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Have you ever experienced an identity meltdown? (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: What I choose not to do tonight (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: Unsolved mysteries (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: objects (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Lipstick, wrestlers masks, love talismans, amulets, rattles, false teeth, breath mints, paper money, eyeliner, and vials containing grains of corn invite us to participate in private acts of self-adornment, ritual offerings and genuflection.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: objects (2014) by Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, and Jennifer A. GonzálezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Tattoo Tears
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If we are attentive, we find discreetly distributed doorbell buttons that can be pushed to trigger even more elaborate recordings by sound artist Zachary James Watkins.

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: objects, Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, Jennifer A. González, 2014, From the collection of: Museo Eduardo Carrillo
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DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: objects, Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, Jennifer A. González, 2014, From the collection of: Museo Eduardo Carrillo
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DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: objects, Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, Jennifer A. González, 2014, From the collection of: Museo Eduardo Carrillo
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DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática: objects, Felicia Rice, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vasquez, Zachary James Watkins, Jennifer A. González, 2014, From the collection of: Museo Eduardo Carrillo
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Bajo La Lupa (2016) by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Gustavo VazquezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Filmmaker and videographer Gustavo Vasquez also collaborated with Gomez-Peña on a series of short videos.

Amor Imposible (2016) by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Gustavo VazquezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

These vignettes sometimes take the form of homage to important performance artists of the last fifty years such as Marina Abromovic offering a tongue-in-cheek revision in a Mex-Chicano idiom.

Border Hamlet (2016) by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Gustavo Vazquez, and Cristina VictorMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Performing is a way of dreaming when we are awake, imagining ourselves crossing a variety of cultural borders that are not always clearly delineated but that have both psychological and political impacts.

A Muerte (2016) by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Gustavo VazquezMuseo Eduardo Carrillo

Credits: Story

DOC/UNDOC Documented/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática
Felicia Rice
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Gustavo Vazquez
Zachary James Watkins
Jennifer A. González

Limited edition artists’ book: Moving Parts Press
Trade Edition: City Lights Booksellers & Publishers

Museo Eduardo Carrillo
Betsy Andersen, Executive Director
Captions adapted from essays by Jennifer A. González and John Weber at museoeduardocarrillo.org

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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